176 IDENTITY OF THE AUSTRALIAN PERIPATUS, 



lierichtet iiber zwei Peripatusarten, von denen die eine, aus Neu. 

 Seeland, mit P. Leuckarti, Sang., stimmt, die andere aber unter 

 der Bezeichnung P. peruanus neu beschrieben wird."* Captain 

 Hutton says that he sent specimens to Dubhn, without any result. 

 Finally in 1876, Hutton himself described the species as P. iiovct- 

 zealandice. Now at this time Hutton evidently was unaware of 

 any record of an Australian Peripatus; nor, under the circum- 

 stances, is that at all surprising, seeing that he was at least as badly 

 off for literature as Moseley during the " Challenger's " visit to 

 Wellington. Of Hutton's paper Leuckart remarks : — " Hutton's 

 Abhandlung ' On Peripatus novoi-zealandcB^ (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 

 (4) xviii., Nov., 1876, pp. 361-369, PI. xvii.) macht uns mit einer 

 Form bekannt, die 15 Beinpaare besitzt, wie der von Sanger 

 (J.-B. 1870, S. 410) beshriebene P. Leuckarti., der unserm Yerf. 

 freilich unbekannt geblieben ist, obwohl seine neue Art vielleicht 

 damit zusammenfallt. Jedenfalls ist nicht der P. novce-zealandio' , 

 sondern der P. Leuckarti die erste Art des Gen. Peripati(.s, die aus 

 Australien kommt."t 



When it is borne in mind that at this time only a single speci- 

 men of the Australian Peripatus was known, and that a female t 

 whose jaw blades were not examined, Sanger not being at libert}^ 

 to dissect the unique example at his disposal; also that, even in 

 the light of up-to-date knowledge the most striking differences 

 between the allied Australian and New Zealand species — /'. 

 insignis, Dendy, being left out of consideration for the present — 

 are furnished by the outer jaw blades, and the secondar}^ sexual 

 characters of the males, it would be interesting to know more 

 definitely what it was that suggested the agreement between or 

 possible identity of the two species. Perhaps Grube's paper would 

 settle this point. Was it that too little was known for accurate 



* Arch. f. Naturgesch. Jahrg. xliii., 1887, ii. Bd. p. 510. 

 iL.c. p. 509. 

 * The sex of the type specimen is not mentioned in the description; 

 but in JSanger's fig. 81 the genital aperture is lettered vL, just as in his fig. 

 of an undoubted female of P. rapennis. 



